E'en great EPAMINONDAS strove in vain To curb thy spirit with a Theban chain: But ah! how low that free-born spirit now! Thy abject sons to haughty tyrants bow; A false, degenerate, superstitious race Invest thy region, and its name disgrace. Not distant far, ARCADIA's blest domains Peloponnesus' circling shore contains: Thrice happy soil! where, still serenely gay, Indulgent Flora breathed perpetual May; Where buxom Ceres bade each fertile field Spontaneous gifts in rich profusion yield; Then, with some rural Nymph supremely blest While transport glowed in each enamoured breast, Each faithful Shepherd told his tender pain, And sung of sylvan sports in artless strain; Soft as the happy Swain's enchanting lay That pipes among the Shades of Endermay: Now, sad reverse! Oppression's iron hand Enslaves her natives, and despoils her land; In lawless rapine bred, a sanguine train With midnight ravage scour th' uncultured plain.
Westward of these, beyond the Isthmus, lies
The long sought Isle of ITHACUS the wise; Where fair PENELOPE, of him deprived, To guard her honour endless schemes contrived :
She, only shielded by a stripling Son,
Her lord ULYSSES long to Ilion gone, Each bold attempt of suitor-kings repell'd, And undefiled her nuptial contract held; True to her vows, and resolutely chaste, Met arts with art, and triumphed at the last. ARGOS, in Greece forgotten and unknown, Still seems her cruel fortune to bemoan; Argos, whose monarch led the Grecian hosts Across th' Ægean main to Dardan coasts: Unhappy Prince! who on a hostile shore Fatigue, and danger, ten long winters bore; And when to native Realms restored at last To reap the harvest of thy labours past, There found a perjured friend, and faithless wife, Who sacrificed to impious lust thy life : Fast by ARCADIA stretch these desert plains, And o'er the land a gloomy tyrant reigns.
Next MACRONISI is adjacent seen, Where adverse winds detained the Spartan Queen; For whom, in arms combined, the Grecian host With vengeance fired, invaded Phrygia's coast; For whom so long they laboured to destroy The lofty turrets of imperial TROY; Here driven by Juno's rage the hapless dame Forlorn of heart, from ruined Ilion came: The Port an image bears of Parian stone Of ancient fabric, but of date unknown.
Due east from this appears th' immortal shore That sacred Phœbus, and Diana bore, DELOS! through all th' Ægean seas renown'd, Whose coast the rocky Cyclades surround; By Phœbus honoured, and by Greece revered, Her hallowed groves e'en distant Persia feared: But now a desert unfrequented land, No human footstep marks the trackless sand.
Thence to the north by Asia's western bound Fair LEMNOS stands, with rising marble crown'd; Where, in her rage, avenging Juno hurl'd Ill-fated Vulcan from th' ethereal world:
There his eternal anvils first he reared; Then, forged by Cyclopean art, appeared Thunders that shook the Skies with dire alarms, Ard, formed by skill divine, immortal arms; There, with this crippled wretch, the foul disgrace And living scandal of th' empyreal race, In wedlock lived the beauteous Queen of Love; Can such sensations heavenly bosoms move!
Eastward of this appears the Dardan shore, That once th' imperial Towers of Ilium bore, Illustrious TROY! renowned in every clime Through the long records of succeeding time; Who saw protecting Gods from Heaven descend Full oft, thy royal bulwarks to defend: Though Chiefs unnumbered in her Cause were slain, With Fate the gods, and heroes, fought in vain! That refuge of perfidious Helen's shame At midnight was involved in Grecian flame; And now, by Time's deep ploughshare harrowed o'er, The seat of Sacred TROY is found no more:
No trace of her proud fabrics now remains, But Corn, and Vines, enrich her cultured plains;
Silver SCAMANDER laves the verdant shore, Scamander, oft o'erflowed with hostile gore.
Not far removed from Ilion's famous land In counter-view appears the THRACIAN Strand, Where beauteous HERO, from the turret's height, Displayed her cresset each revolving night; Whose gleam directed loved LEANDER o'er The rolling Hellespont from Asia's shore: Till in a fated hour, on Thracia's coast She saw her lover's lifeless body tost; Then felt her bosom agony severe, Her eyes, sad gazing, poured th' incessant tear; O'erwhelmed with anguish, frantic with despair, She beat her swelling breast, and tore her hair; On dear LEANDER's name in vain she cried, Then headlong plunged into the parting tide: Th' exulting tide received the lovely Maid, And proudly from the strand its freight convey'd. Far west of Thrace, beyond th' Ægean main, Remote from Ocean lies the DELPHIC plain: The sacred Oracle of Phœbus there High o'er the Mount arose, divinely fair!
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